Immunoregulation in cancer-associated cachexia

doi:10.1016/j.jare.2023.04.018

Journal of Advanced Research

Volume 58, April 2024, Pages 45-62

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2023.04.018 Get rights and content

Under a Creative Commons license

open access

Highlights

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The inflammatory factors and additional mediators contribute to systemic inflammation involved in cachexia.
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Immune checkpoints exert a modulatory effect in the cachectic development through regulating adipocyte differentiation and systemic metabolic balance.
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The multilayered insights including the immunometabolic axis, immune-gut axis and immune-nerve axis in cachexia are elaborated.

Abstract

Background

Cancer-associated cachexia is a multi-organ disorder associated with progressive weight loss due to a variable combination of anorexia, systemic inflammation and excessive energy wasting. Considering the importance of immunoregulation in cachexia, it still lacks a complete understanding of the immunological mechanisms in cachectic progression.

Aim of review

Our aim here is to describe the complex immunoregulatory system in cachexia. We summarize the effects and translational potential of the immune system on the development of cancer-associated cachexia and we attempt to conclude with thoughts on precise and integrated therapeutic strategies under the complex immunological context of cachexia.

Key Scientific Concepts of Review

This review is focused on three main key concepts. First, we highlight the inflammatory factors and additional mediators that have been identified to modulate this syndrome. Second, we decipher the potential role of immune checkpoints in tissue wasting. Third, we discuss the multilayered insights in cachexia through the immunometabolic axis, immune-gut axis and immune-nerve axis.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Immune regulation

Cachexia

Cancer

Gut

Nerve

Cited by (0)

Wu Qi received his Ph.D. from Wuhan University and was co-trained at Paris-Saclay University for 2 years. He has published more than 20 research papers as the first author or co-author in Mol Cancer、Signal Transduct Target Ther、J Hematol Oncol、J Immunother Cancer、Autophagy and Cancer Communication. He is currently working at the Institute of Oncology, Tongji University, Shanghai, and his main research direction is tumor metabolism and immunity.

Liu Zhou received his bachelor's degree from Zhejiang University School of Medicine and is currently studying for a master's degree in surgery at Wuhan University. His main research area is tumor metabolic immunity. After a long period of study, he has acquired a certain clinical work ability. In addition, he focuses on scientific research and has the ability to independently conduct experiments.

Li Bei received his Ph.D. from Wuhan University and is currently working in the Department of Pathology, People's Hospital of Wuhan University. His main research direction is tumor metabolism and immunity. Her study was supported by the grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Several high-level papers have been published.

Liu Yu-e is a doctoral student in basic medicine, whose main research interests are mitochondrial metabolism and tumors. She has published professional academic papers in STTT, Medcomm as the first author or co-first author. She is also the secretary of the Cancer Branch of the Chinese Society of Cell Biology and the secretary of the Youth Committee of the Tumor Microenvironment Special Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association.

Wang Ping holds a Ph. D. from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is The Yangtze River scholar Professor and is currently the Vice Dean of Tongji University School of Medicine. His main research direction is the basic and translational research of tumor microenvironment.

: Peer review under responsibility of Cairo University.

¹: These authors contributed equally to this work.